Small Town News

Controversy erupts over planned horse gather

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The Bureau of Land Management issued a decision last week to perform a roundup and removal of horses from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range beginning Tuesday, Sept. 1, but a federal lawsuit and request for injunction filed by horse advocates has the operation delayed by at least a gew days.

A decision on the request for injunctive relief filed Friday by the Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue is expected before Thursday, Sept. 3, and as early as Wednesday morning, at which time the BLM plans to start the gather of wild horses from the Pryor range. However, the roundup may be halted or temporarily delayed depending on the judge's decision. According to the BLM, it costs $7,000 per day to have the gather crew, including a helicopter pilot and ground crew, waiting on standby.

Don Glenn, chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program in Washington, D.C., is one of several national BLM officials who are in Lovell this week for the gather operation. Glenn said his office has received at least 400 comments in the last week in protest of the gather operation. He said he came to Lovell because of the controversy surrounding the planned gather.

Glenn has worked for the BLM on and off for the past 30 years. He began working in Utah and transferred to Rawlins, working there from the late 70's until the late 80's. He then led the Wyoming state horse program from 1988 to 2003, before moving to Washington, D.C., to eventually become chief of the national Wild Horse and Burro Program beginning in 2006.

'We have to protect the health of the range land, which in turn protects the health of the herd," Glenn said, adding that if the health of the range is not protected, the horses will either have to leave the range or begin eating poisonous or non-nutritious plants. Without removing some horses, Glenn said, the range would be stripped of forage and make it hard for horses to survive as the population continues to climb. In the event of a harsh winter and/or a severe drought year, the Pryor herd could be in a lot of trouble, he said.

"These are tough animals and they can paw through the snow to find forage, but there has to be forage for them to find," Glenn said.

"We love these horses as much as anybody. I feel it's our duty to preserve them."

Filmmaker and Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation Ginger Kathrens and other horse advocates from around the country are calling on federal courts, congressmen and spiritual forces to try to stop the roundup and keep the herd at a number they feel would keep the herd healthy.

The Cloud Foundation has been circulating a petition against the roundup and urging people to contact President Obama, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, BLM Director Bob Abbey and their state congressmen and women to express opposition to the planned gather. Their grassroots efforts have prompted some action, including a letter from congressman and chairman of the subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) to BLM Director Bob Abbey urging Abbey to stop the removal of any wild horses until the program can be fixed.

On Friday, Kathrens and horse advocates associated with the Cloud Foundation attended a Native American ceremony on private land near Britton Springs to honor and heal the land and life in the area of the Pryor range. Douglas Spotted Eagle of the Northern Cheyenne tribe performed a cloth ceremony, where spirits were called out from the earth, sweet grass and cedar was burned and everyone in attendance was "wiped" with a bouquet of cloths. The cloths are said to absorb negativity and each participant took one home to hang on a tree or at the top of a mountain, to allow negative energy to be carried away by the wind. Spotted Eagle said a Native American prayer and encouraged everyone to say their own prayers if desired.

Saturday, a group took a ride in the Pryor range and the Lakota prayer of oneness and harmony with all forms of life was performed by James Kleinert among the mountain peaks of the range.

The planned gather operation would be the largest removal in the 32-year history of the Pryor horse range and Tfathrens said it isn't clear why the unprecedented removal is being done. She said factors other than horses play a role in range degradation such as water erosion. She said the operation would be "shrouded in a cloak of secrecy" as the BLM plans to close the entire area to the general public, except on a case-by-case basis.

Kathrens argues that the removal of 70 horses would leave the herd genetically non-viable and unable to sustain into the future. While many experts deviate about the number needed to keep the Pryor herd genetically viable (free of inbreeding), the Cloud Foundation cites research from Texas A&M University equine geneticist Gus Cothran, Ph.D., that a number between 150 and 200 horses is needed. Currently, there are about 190 (one year and older) living on the Pryor range; the planned roundup would bring that number down to about 120.

"Removing 70 horses will destroy this unique little Spanish herd, leaving them well below the bare minimum for genetic viability," Kathrens said. "The range is in great condition and the horses are healthy. This removal should be stopped."

In response to Kathrens' genetic viability argument, Glenn said he agrees with the science behind the argument but said the BLM is mandated by law to manage for rangeland health, as well as other uses of the range. Though the range looks green in some places, Glen said much of the forage is either poisonous or lacks nutritional value.

Kathrens disagrees and said the horses seek out some of the plants that are being called not nutritional or poisonous including lupine and other flowers.

Kathrens also brought up a bill that was passed by the United States House of Representatives recently, the Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) act. The U.S. Senate will review the bill when they reconvene from recess in September and Kathrens said the BLM is trying to circumvent Congress' wishes that wild horses be protected.

"Is the BLM just trying to do as much irrecoverable damage to America's wild horses as fast as they can before the Senate can act?" Kathrens said.

Responding to comments about trying to circumvent congress, Glenn said the planned gather and the ROAM act are unrelated.

Even if the judge rules against the Cloud Foundation's request to stop the gather, Kathrens said she would not give up fighting for the Pryor herd. For more information on the Cloud Foundation's fight against the horse gather and updates, visit www.th-ecloudfoundation.org.

PMWMC STANCE

The Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center is a resource for visitors of the Pryor range. There, people can get information about where they can view the horses, read interpretive displays, look at many stunning photographs and purchase mouse pads, T-shirts and hats featuring the wild mustangs.

But the PMWMC also serves an active role in researching and monitoring the herd. PMWMC Director Matt Dillon and other members of the center's board of directors spend countless hours on the range, documenting births and deaths of horses, studying their behaviors and family structures and putting together proposals for management strategies to submit to the BLM.

Dillon said the PMWMC board of directors is not in favor of a large gather operation like the one planned, and they would rather see the removal of horses carried out with smaller gathers over a period of two years.

"We would like to see small roundups over a period of time instead of one large roundup," Dillon said. "Something that took years to develop shouldn't be resolved in one year."

The center submitted a proposal to the BLM earlier this summer to remove 30 horses ages 1-3 this year and treat and release some mares with the infertility vaccine PZP during the roundup. The PZP would decrease the number of new foals and next year, another like-sized gather could be performed to bring the population down to the high end of the BLM's AML of 120 horses.

The center is happy to see that the use of PZP is included in the current gather plan, Dillon said. He recently signed a volunteer agreement with the BLM to make sure horses are properly identified for the gather, as well as for the administration of PZP and for DNA sampling.

The center would not like to see older horses removed because there is less of a market for adoption of those horses, Dillon said.

According to the BLM, any horses not adopted or sold will be transported to a BLM holding facility in Nebraska where they will stay before being sent to another adoption event or to long-term holding.

In regard to the current planned gather, Dillon said it isn't the center's ideal plan, but he believes a removal of some kind is necessary to preserve rangeland health. Without the removal of 70 horses this summer, the population of breeding-age horses could be as high as 213 next summer, which would call for an even larger gather, Dillon said.

"It's not going to be fun, but in the bigger picture it's going to be OK," he said.

GATHER OPERATIONS

Helicopters and wranglers on horseback will be used during the gather operation, scheduled to begin Thursday pending the lawsuit and injunction request. Approximately 190 wild horses will be gathered from the wild horse range and lands outside the range in the Custer National Forest, according to a BLM press release. Before horses are released, the sex ratio of the herd will be evened and some mares will be treated with a fertility control vaccine.

Most of the horses, about 120 head, will be released back to the range. The remainder will be available for adoption at Britton Springs on Sept. 26. Once gathering operations have been completed, the BLM will announce times the public may view the horses at the Britton Springs site prior to their release or adoption.

In a herd management area plan completed in 2009, the BLM determined that the appropriate management level (AML) on the range is 90-120 wild horses (excluding the current year's foal crop). This is the population (or appropriate management level) that would achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship on the range, according to a BLM press release.

Lands in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range will be closed to public access from Aug. 31 through Sept. 10 to help ensure the safety of the public, contractors and government employees during wild horse gather operations, according to the BLM. The closure will also help protect the welfare of wild and domestic horses, the agency said.

Once gather operations are concluded in specific areas, those portions of the range will be reopened. The temporary closure may be lifted prior to September 10 if gather operations are completed before that date. Areas temporarily closed to public access will be posted at main entry points with signs and/or barricades. With the exception of the adoption activities, the Britton Springs site north of Lovell, and the adjacent area will remain temporarily closed through October 1. However, a viewing area for members of the public or media will be available near Britton Springs. If the gather begins Thursday, media day and viewing will probably be held on Friday, according to a BLM spokesman.



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© 2009 The Lovell Chronicle Lovell, Wyoming. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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